Zone of the Enders (2001)Metal Gear Solid was revered as a technical showpiece for its home hardware and Zone of the Enders, Kojima's first released PlayStation 2 project, aimed to achieve the same esteem. As one of the first titles to release on the new hardware, many looked to Zone of the Enders for support of Sony's bold graphical claims. Kojima and his team delivered.

As an early PlayStation 2 release, Zone of the Enders successfully showed just what the new hardware could do. Though games since have certainly gone beyond the graphical bounds of the first Zone of the Enders, the game proved that the low-framerate, jaggy mess of most early PS2 games wasn't indicative of the hardware's best performance.

Beyond showcasing fancy graphics, Zone of the Enders also helped pioneer a new generation of 3D gaming to solve the 32-bit era's issues. Lock-on targeting was nothing new (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time established the gameplay mechanic), but the clever camera work and fully three-dimensional controls of Zone of the Enders showed what to expect from Sony's new age of gaming.

But most players remember Zone of the Enders as the game with the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo. Though the game's sales were no doubt helped by the inclusion of a Sons of Liberty demo, it's easy to see that Kojima's more popular franchise overshadowed the 3D robot wars. Zone of the Enders' short and repetitive campaign didn't help change its face as the game with the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo, and the game served as a mere stepping stone for players eager to test Kojima's future magnum opus.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) Just months after the release of Zone of the Enders and a year after the launch of Sony's PlayStation 2, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty released to critical acclaim. Combining the basic gameplay of previous Metal Gear games with state-of-the-art enemy AI, Sons of Liberty reignited the public interest in stealth games and restated the franchise's status as the poster child of PlayStation.

It wasn't long before Sony's rivals would secure their own stealth hero. Ubisoft readied Splinter Cell for release on Microsoft's Xbox a year later, and the game quickly became Xbox fans' answer to Metal Gear. Though very different in gameplay, the similarities between Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell are obvious. In fact, Splinter Cell copies Metal Gear's AI design outright, with various stages of enemy alertness, sound triggers, and patrol paths.

Metal Gear Solid 2's enemy AI is arguably still, five years later, among the best in gaming. The intricate rules of the AI system and the player's manipulations make for very dynamic player interaction with enemies, creating enemies that feel real without compromising the gameplay qualities.

Metal Gear Solid 2 also continues the series' tradition of production excellence and set a new benchmark for other games, most of which hadn't even caught up with the presentation of the original Metal Gear Solid. But more than simply improving the game's cinematic qualities, Kojima created perhaps the first postmodern videogame. The sinuous plot and irrational characters carry themes of personal loyalties and truths. These themes would later continue in Metal Gear Solid 3, but the influence of Kojima's postmodernity can be seen in other creator's games, including Gouichi Suda's Killer 7.

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (2003) Not to let the shortcomings of the first Enders game spoil opinions of the franchise, Kojima and his team released--almost two years later, to the day--Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. And though The 2nd Runner never enjoyed retail success, the game is not without its own influential statements. If nothing else, the second Zone of the Enders game boldly exemplifies the way sequels should be done.